Wayne Brady loves Orlando. The City Beautiful is where he grew up, where he went to school and where he created and honed the skills that have made him one of Hollywood’s most versatile entertainers.
“While I wasn’t born there—I was born in Columbus, Georgia—in terms of my life, Orlando is the place that I claim. I always get a sense of pride whenever I see anyone come out of Orlando that’s done anything really great,” Brady says.
“Growing up in Orlando in the late 70s through the 80s, I had an amazing time,” he continues. “I loved being from Tangelo Park. I loved going to Dr. Phillips High School. I had a great time at West Orange for the one year that I went there. Whenever I’ve gone back it still feels the same. It still smells the same to me.”
Brady came up at a time when Orlando was turning out some of the world’s biggest entertainers: NSYNC, the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Ryan Gosling and Mandy Moore to name a few. He also helped start the SAK Theater Comedy Lab, worked as a character at Disney and was a Ghostbuster at Universal.
“Orlando gave me so many opportunities that if I would have just graduated high school and left to go to Los Angeles, I would have never had,” Brady says. “There really was a lot of art and theater and music coming out of the area and it was a great place for a performer to get started.”
Since leaving Central Florida, Brady has gone to appear on television in “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” and “How I Met Your Mother.” He’s also had celebrated runs on Broadway in “Chicago” and “Kinky Boots,” won six Emmy Awards, had his own talk show and is the current host of the game show “Let’s Make A Deal.”
Brady is making his way back to Florida as he tours the country with what he calls “an improv rock concert.” Brady spoke with Watermark by phone ahead of his Florida shows.
Watermark: All of those skills you learned here in Orlando were on full display in your first televised show, “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” That is the first chance audiences outside of Orlando got to see your talent. How did you get involved in “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”
Wayne Brady: I first got involved when “Whose Line” came to Orlando, I think it was in 1992, and auditioned us from SAK. We were still a fairly new company and, while we were funny, I think we hadn’t worked up our muscles yet. We were good for being big fish in a small pond, so to speak. I’m not saying that Orlando is a small pond—especially now, it’s even bigger and better—but back then, when you’re pretty much the only game in town, you have nothing to gauge yourself against.
It was after that when the original seven of us that started SAK went to L.A. We had a lot of talent in that group but we needed to be tested. So when we left and moved to L.A., that’s when we found out “Oh, we need to step our game up” and we really worked hard and grew. I got “Whose Line” when they came to L.A. and had an open call in 1997 or 98. We were invited by the show because by then we had morphed into a group called “The House Full of Honkeys” and we were selling out shows and were getting a reputation, so we all auditioned.
At the time I knew in my heart that there was no way in hell that I was going to get cast. I loved doing the songs and I loved doing characters, but I was really focused on auditioning and when I went to L.A. I was convinced that my big break would be either from a sitcom or a drama, or I would get a record deal. Those were the things that I was pursuing. I didn’t consider myself funny like the other guys were funny. I think they are some of the funniest guys I’ve ever known on the planet, the ones I came up with. So I knew that I wasn’t going to get the show. I went to the audition on my lunch break for Universal Studios Hollywood; I had managed to get a job there in the “Beetlejuice” show. I said, “Okay, I’ll just go to this audition and then go back and do the rest of my shows.” Well, as luck would have it, at the end of the day I was the guy that got the new slot. Out of hundreds of people that auditioned, I got that gig and it completely changed my life, but I would have never gotten it if it hadn’t been
for everything that I learned in Orlando.
You are a very versatile performer: You act, you sing, you dance, you’ve done voice work, you host everything—talk shows, game shows. Is there one particular medium you enjoy above all the others?
You know what? I’ve gotten that question for 20 years and the answer’s always the same. It’s no. I think at different times, I enjoy different things. But if I didn’t do even one of those things that you just mentioned, we wouldn’t be having this call right now. I’m able to pull all that together into one package and then be funny on top of that. So I think if I had to rank it in order, I love music. I’m a musical soul at heart, which influences my comedy. So anything that I can do that involves music, whether it’s doing a Broadway musical, whether it’s doing a musical improv show like I’m doing when I come to Florida, those are the things that make me happy. I love doing scripted stuff as well. I love taking on other characters. So I think it really depends.
You’re known in the entertainment world as being a really nice guy and having a really clean-cut image. You even poked fun at that image in an episode of “Chappelle’s Show” back in 2004. Has that image ever presented a challenge in trying to land a role?
Yes, actually. What’s funny is only in show business and in the perverse way that people can be because of human nature, can someone not being a dick be looked at as a negative when you’re auditioning for a role. I’m an actor, plain and simple. So who I am in my regular life has nothing to do with what I can do onscreen. When people say “Oh, you’re too nice,” just because you’ve never heard about me using drugs, getting into a fight with the cops or spitting on somebody doesn’t mean that I’m any better than anyone else. It either means that my mom raised me right—which my grandmother did raise me right—or it means that I’m very good at hiding my dirt. Either one of those still have nothing to do with what you do onscreen.
I feel that that is a very bad commentary—in the past I’ve called it “nice guy syndrome.” It’s hurt me in some ways and I work to make sure that my talent leads. I also figure if I don’t get something, or someone doesn’t think I’ll be interesting enough because I’m not snorting coke, then I don’t need to work for you.
You’ve played two really interesting and powerful gay characters. The first is Barney Stinson’s openly gay brother James on “How I Met Your Mother.” How did that role come to you?
I loved playing James. They called me, the creators of the show, and I will forever be thankful to them. They called and made an offer. They said, “We would love for you to play Barney’s gay brother” and I thought how amazing it would be to play Barney’s gay, black brother, and the coolest thing about that role was that it wasn’t played as a gag. He was a guy who in some ways was more of a “dude” than Barney was. He kept it real and happened to be in love with a man who was his husband. That’s what I thought was such a great space to present. I see way too many other portrayals where someone is mocked or a gay character that’s brought on as the butt of a joke and I didn’t want to be a part of that.
That was actually my next question because you didn’t play him stereotypically flamboyant or over the top as so many gay characters have been played on TV. When you came in and read the script for the part, is that how the character was written or was that something that you consciously brought to the character yourself?
I think it’s both. They had a very grounded way of writing him and once I read it, I knew that I wanted him to be just a guy. At the end of the day, there are all these stereotypes of everyone: There are stereotypes for every race, there are stereotypes for every gender, and there are some people that, for good or for bad, live up to those stereotypes. Then there are people that just so happen to be black, they so happen to be gay. So I love the opportunity to just play the guy who happens to be black, who happens to be gay. It was one of the coolest things I think I’ve done on TV.
Coming onto a show like that that has such a close-knit lead cast, was it difficult folding into the group at all or were they very open and accepting of people coming in and working in the group?
They were so open and I think especially coming on with a certain cache or status—you were coming into their world, but I was invited into their world because they knew that I could deliver—you were coming into a place of mutual respect. And on top of that, every one of those guys are super nice and just good people.
You also played Lola in “Kinky Boots” on Broadway, and Lola is another powerful LGBTQ character. Were you intimidated at all taking that role on?
I think the only intimidating part about it were the shoes. I remember after my first rehearsal once I got home, I woke up in the middle of the night and my feet were actually pulsing like it was a cartoon. I stopped myself for a second and thought, “I really don’t know if I’ll be able to do this show because of the shoes.” Then I kicked that thought right out of my head after ten seconds because there was no way in hell that I wasn’t going to do it. I love Lola so much, I love Lola/Simon. I learned so many things about myself and about life doing that role and I’m lucky enough that I got a chance to do it twice. I got a second crack at it and I feel that I was able to even perform it better and learn even more.
The interesting thing about Lola—and this may be controversial for some people—when you talk about Lola being gay, the thing is if you read the script on the very first page—and I talked to Harvey [Fierstein, who wrote the book for “Kinky Boots”] about this—if you read the very first page in the character description, Lola is heterosexual, and I thought that was amazing. To my knowledge, I think that everyone who’s done Lola has been gay, and that’s neither here nor there, but for me as an actor, that was an important piece. I felt that I could connect with Lola on a level maybe that some other guys couldn’t because I felt like Lola. I felt like Simon. I was that kid who maybe didn’t live up to my neighborhood’s or my family’s ideals of masculinity.
Being raised in Tangelo Park, and I loved growing up there, but in that environment homophobic words were thrown around like it was air. So from the other kids in my neighborhood, that’s the first time that I ever heard the word “faggot” and it was said to me. A kid cornered me in the bathroom and said that I “walked like a faggot” and I didn’t know what that meant. I had to ask my mom, and even then at that age I remember thinking “What an ugly-ass word. What a horrible thing to throw at somebody.”
So when I got a hold of the script and I knew that Simon put up with that from his own father and went to such great lengths to prove himself by becoming a boxer and then said “Screw this, I’m going to become a drag queen,” and he lives in that world and loves and takes on that persona, I knew that I was that guy.
What were your biggest takeaways from playing Lola?
I think the second time I learned more technical things. I felt like I was a better technical performer in drag because by the time I had done it the first time for six months, I had learned to dance in the heels and embody certain things. I knew a bunch of drag queens, even when I was a kid I used to hang out at the Parliament House, so I grew up watching a lot of amazing drag performers. I saw my first drag show there at the Parliament House. God bless his soul, Paul Wegman was a friend of mine. He directed me in a production of “Fences” and he was emceeing the night of my first drag show.
Shangela [a “RuPaul’s Drag Race” finalist] was my drag coach for opening night and is still a dear friend of mine. So I think the second time around, I was way more at ease. When I started the second run, I knew my body better, and I think in terms of knowing my body better, I was able to play the Lola mannerisms and persona even better.
What I learned the first time around is, and it’s one of the coolest lessons I’ve ever learned in my life, that I’ve never felt like more of a man than when I walked onstage in those heels. I would come out in the blue outfit and those shoes and I felt so empowered, I felt beautiful. Some guys would go “You can’t feel beautiful. You’ve got to feel handsome.” No. I felt beautiful. I felt strong because I’m already 6 feet, but with those heels I was, like, 6 feet 4 inches. I felt very powerful and I loved that feeling. I loved that armor and I think that’s one of the lessons I took away.
I was receiving so much love online and in the world and in the community for taking on the role of Lola, but I also received a lot of vitriol online. Like, some urban stations saying “You know I heard that Wayne Brady is doing this drag character. I told you he was a sissy.” He’s this, he’s that. I got mail from people that watched “Let’s Make a Deal” saying that they would never watch me on “Whose Line” or “Let’s Make a Deal” or any sitcom that I did again because I was committing a sin. I would get letters from some black women saying “Damn, we lost another one.” The lesson that I learned from all that is I don’t care. I did not care at all what they thought. In fact, it was fuel. Every night that I went onstage I took that RuPaul quote to heart: “What you think of me is none of my business.”
I remember seeing an interview back in the 90s with Wesley Snipes when he did “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar” and people were saying similar things about him for taking that role.
In some portions of the black community the homophobia is still very strong in the sense that there is an ideal of what a man is and what masculinity is. What is messed up about that to me, and I’ve spoken about this before, is that stereotype that some of us lay upon each other—like you need to be this big thugged-out cat to really be a man—that is the same stereotype that then people outside our community, like in show business, they have the idea of a hyper-masculine black bull or a stud or somebody who’s cool or somebody who’s down. If you don’t talk like that, if you don’t walk like that, then you’re not black.
In our community, it’s not only you’re not black enough, but you’re not man enough. When Wesley did that I think it was so brave of him. He was Mr. Hyper-masculine, martial arts, basketball playing dude. He was the closest thing we had to a big black action hero. So I love Wesley’s choice. In fact, Wesley Snipes is one of my idols.
You are coming home to Central Florida this October. You’re such a versatile entertainer, there’s so many different things that we can expect from the show. So let me just ask you: What can we expect to see from you?
Well, I’m going to try to throw in a little bit of everything, but it’s an improvisational show for the most part. I call it an improv rock concert. I come out and start out with a freestyle, using words from the audience. Then from that point on, it’s whatever pops into my head. I always bring people from the audience up onstage, I interview people. I might even check your Instagram feed and put your picture up on the screen and do a character based on you. I allow the audience to write song titles that don’t exist. I take those song titles and we make songs that sound like real songs. I have my music director Cat Gray with me.
Then I let the audience write their own questions. I ask them to write down questions that they want to ask me. Nothing is off limits. I promise to answer with complete honesty. I do that because I figure a conversation is the closest to improv that you get in real life. So my answer to you, it’ll either be just a straight answer or it might be a funny story or the funny story turns into a song or the story turns into a scene. So it’s a way for me to communicate with the audience while sharing things about me that maybe they didn’t know and also an opportunity for me to do funny storytelling.
Wayne Brady performs at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Orlando on Oct. 12 at 8 p.m., tickets start at $39.50 and are available at DrPhillipsCenter.org, and at The Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg on Oct. 13 at 7 p.m., tickets starts at $35 and are available at TheMahaffey.com.
